Culture Innovation CODIR’s necessary exemplarity

The Codir, or Management Committee, is the place where strategic decisions are made or validated. Indeed becoming a member of Codir is statutory and accessing this status means that all the eyes of the employees are on you.

At a time of digital transparency, the exemplarity of Codir is more than ever necessary. A Codir member can no longer say “Do what I say and not what I do”. For innovation, which involves disruption and transformation, this adage is worth more !

 1) be a Codir’s member: rights and duties for innovation

Innovating involves a set of behaviors such as collaboration, openness, acceptance of new ideas …

These behaviors may seem out of step with those of the competition advocated by traditional companies or even some start-ups led by entrepreneurs without managerial culture. However, employees cannot be expected to behave in a way that the Codir does not apply to itself.

In the many Codirs that I accompany, “collaboration” is undoubtedly the most difficult challenge.  Each Codir member often comes to represent their silo and defend the interests of their territory.

However, innovation results from the confrontation of ideas and the contribution of all the functions of the company for its implementation, from technique to HR to recruit the right project manager. And it is not uncommon to see directors encouraging their collaborators to cooperate with each other while they are in manifest war with their colleagues at Codir.

Their request for collaboration then turns into a paradoxical injunction! Putting innovation on the Codir agenda is an excellent remedy for transversality.

2) know how to use diversity: open your point of view to innovate

The Codir is indeed a set of development opportunities. Taking place at regular intervals, participating in it gives the possibility of launching and presenting the progress of the project at each decision stage.

Composed of managing counterparts, it allows the involvement of the services represented around the table to be called upon. It is also the time to indicate the level of contribution of each to create the positive dynamic of association with the project.

But it is also, under the seal of the confidentiality of this body, to identify non-contributions and engage collective responsibility for the risks of delays or level of excellence.

3) New skills for innovation 

For many, being a member of Codir means representing their service and, in the best of cases, getting the information down the next day during the service meeting. It is traditionally a “top down” function.

However, innovation presupposes rather “bottom up” methods involving the solicitation of employees in the process of creation then of decision. The Codir then becomes a place of “feedback” of ideas and solutions to be adopted.  Being a member of Codir pour l’Innovation therefore means sharing and collective intelligence.

So many soft skills related to empathy and benevolence that help build trust, solidarity and co-responsibility.   Let’s avoid applying the horrors described in the business thriller “The Codir Killed Me” to kill innovation. A good management lesson to develop an innovation culture.

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